How The Free Market Doesn't Work

SEARCH BLOG: OIL and CONGRESS

I thought this had to be made up [HT Infidel Bloggers Alliance]. Then I came back to my senses and realized that the U.S. Congress was involved, so the improbable became likely.

By Tom Doggett

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.

The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.

"This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities," said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation.

The lawmaker said Americans "are at the mercy" of OPEC for how much they pay for gasoline, which this week hit a record average of $3.79 a gallon.

The White House opposes the bill, saying that targeting OPEC investment in the United States as a source for damage awards "would likely spur retaliatory action against American interests in those countries and lead to a reduction in oil available to U.S. refiners."

Is this not the same Congress that prevents oil drilling in ANWR and U.S. offshore, and preventing U.S. oil shale development?

So, Congress wants to sue OPEC for not drilling more oil because we have a shortage created by Congress refusing to allow development of domestic oil supplies.

Can stupidity get any more profound?

Well, if that fails, Congress can always sue the automobile manufacturers for making cars that burn gasoline. But let's just limit that suit to domestic manufacturers. We wouldn't want the rest of the world hurting themselves laughing at us.

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